must soon lose. He was glad to make the house seem pleasant to him, and
he was much gratified by his frequent coming. And Richard was peculiarly
a man to like and to lean upon. Not in any way brilliant, and with no
literary tastes, he was well educated enough, and very well informed; a
thorough business man. I think he was ordinarily reserved, but our
intercourse had been so unconventional, that I did not think him so at
all. He was rather good-looking, tall and square-shouldered, with
light-brown hair and fine dark-blue eyes; he had a great many points of
advantage.

One day, long after he had become almost a member of the household, he
told me he wanted me to know his sister, and that she would come the
next day to see me, if I would like it. I did like it, and waited for
her with impatience. He had told me a great deal about her, and I was
full of curiosity to see her. She was a little older than Richard, and
the only sister; very pretty, and quite a person of consequence in
society. She had made an unfortunate marriage, though of that Richard
said very little to me; but with better luck than attends most
unfortunately-married, women, she was released by her husband's early
death, and was free to be happy again, with some pretty boys, a moderate
fortune, and two brothers to look after her investments, and do her
little errands for her. She considered herself fortunate; and was a
widow of rare discretion, in that she was wedded to her unexpected
independence, and never intended to be wedded to anything or anybody
else. She was naturally cool and calculating, and was in no danger of
being betrayed by her feelings into any other course of life than the
one she had marked out as most expedient. If she was worldly, she was
also useful, intelligent, and popular, and a paragon in her brother's
partial eyes.